Method of regulating combustion of gaseous fuel.



H. L. noHERTY. METHOD 0F REGULATINGCOMBUSTIONl 0F GASEOUS FUEL.

APPLICATION FILED MAYI5. 19H. 1,150,842.

RENEWED FEB. I8. 1915.

Patented Aug. 17, 1915.

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HENRY L. DOHERTY, `F NEW YORK, N. Y. u

METHOD REGULATIN'G- GOMBUSTION 0F GASEOU'S.v

Specicationfof Letters Patent.

:Patented Aug. 17, 1915.

Application led May 15, 1911, Serial No. 627,133. Renewed February 18, 1915. Serial No. 9,183.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, HENRY L. DOHERTY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York city, in the county of New York'and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Regulating Combustion of Gaseous Fuel, of which the following is a specification. This invention relates to a method of regulating combustion of gaseous fuel, and in particular to an improved method of carrying out the combustion of such a fuel to produce a long, voluminous, slow burning flame.

The object of my invention is to secure a' more uniform generation of heat throughout the furnace,^retortoven, or whatever apparatus is being heated by the combustion, whereby the retorts or material which is the subject of the heating are subjected to a very uniform and even temperature; v

In the present methods of conducting combustion in a retort furnace, for example, the producer gas is burned with undiluted air, with the production of a short hot iiame in contact with a few of the retorts, highly heating the same, whilefthe remaining retorts are withoutl the direct action of the flame and heated only by' the hot products of combustion.- As the combustionv gases flow through the oven they give up more and more of their heat to the retorts, grad-v ually falling in temperature, meanwhile.v

As a result, the retorts which are last heated by the gases are in contact with` relatively. cool gases compared with those inl the immediate region of combustion.' The result of this is that if the time given to burning -off a charge is regulated by the time required for the completion of the operation in the hottest retorts, the material in the.

relatively cooler retorts will not be 'thoroug'hly carbonized, while if the duration'of the operation isregulated by the time re# L quired' to carbonize the charge in the cooler retorts, it will be unduly and unnecessarily prolonged s o faras concerns the charges in the hotter retorts.

By my method, I am able to secure a prolonged and diifused combustion, so that the generation ofV heat ,is distributed throughout the oven chamber, with the result that all of effect of this is to greatly reduce the velocity of reaction at the place of mixture of the producer gas and air. The oxygen of the volume of inert gases a considerably longer time' elapses before all of the combustible constituents of the producer gas have come into reactive proximity .to oxygen. As a consequence of this, combustion of the gas takes place throughout a much larger region of the retort oven. In fact, the proportion of flue gas may be so adjusted that combustion will not be completed untiljust before the gases discharge from the oven. The vresult of this is that I am ableto bathe chamber with a flame of burning gas of just the right temperature to secure the best results in carbonization. The heating of the charges in the several retorts is thus made very uniform. Besides this advantage, I secure another important result-fi. e., increased life of the retorts and setting due to paratus for carrying out such process. The

each and every one of the retorts in the4 oven the possibility of working with a uniform and moderate temperature. vEach retort is exposed to onlyv lthe degree of heat that is requisite for perfect carbonization. It is not necessary to overheat some retorts in order to properly heat the remainder.

In the drawings, I have shown an apparatus capable of carrying out my im` proved process.

Figure l is a longitudinal section through one of .the air recuperators vand part of t e retort oven of a gas bench on the line A-B of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 isa half cross-section of' the, gas bench on the line C-D of Fig. 1

and ahalf elevation. Fig. 3 isa part longitudinal section through the gas producer of the bench on the line E-F of Flg. 2. The usual method of operatl the apparatus shown is as follows s-A ecp lbed of 65 y air being diluted with a relatively large y current.- This'is accomplished bymeans of fuel is maintained in the gas producer 1, the fuel being supported by the gratev 2. The combustion of the fuel is' supported by the air admitted through-the dampers 3. Drip plates 4 are placed in the front of the producer, to which water is supplied through the pipe 5. The water runs onto the uppermost drip plate and lthence the. excess passes from plate to plate, the drip from the lower plate falling into the water pan 4 beneath the' grate. The heat of the fuel bed evaporates the water in the pan 4 and onl the drip plates 4,` the vapor produced cooling -the ironwork of the grate and ash pit and then passing into the fuel'bed and cooling the same.- In the ash zone of the producer just above ,the 'grate 2, the cooling effect of the vapor is due chieiiy to the absorption of sensi-' ble heat, by the vapor, from the ash. In the upper part of the fuel bed the cooling effect is due to the heat taken up from the `incandescent fuel and rendered 'latent through the reaction between the water vapor and the incandescent carbon, viz.

The oxygen of the air admitted also revlacts with the fuel to-vp'roduce carbon mooven-chamber 7 through the ports 9 ofthe uppermost recuperator flues 10 of .the 4re- 40 noxid according to the well known reaction C|-O`=CO. The producer gas thus generatved ascends from the fuel bed and passes through the nostrils 6 into the oven chamber 7, where it is burned by the oxygen of the secondary current entering,through the air nostrils 8. The products of the secondarycombustion sweep around the fretorts, as indicated by the arrows, and escape from cuperators 11 -and 12. From the lines 10, the combustion gases passV through the recuperator flues 13 to the stack lues 23; In passing through the iiues 13 a large 'part of the sensible heat which theV combustion gases carry out of the retort oyen 7 is transferred to the secondary draft current pass- .l ing upward through the flues 14- of each recuperaton. As the combustion gas finies 13 'Y this application, I modify theprocess dev of each recuperator are located in the-vertical flues 14 of the corresponding recuperator, the secondary draft current is caused to sweep around the flues 13 and take up the heat of the combustion gases passing therethrough. The heateddi'aft current passes thence to the" air nostrils 8 asl beforeldescribed.

' l-Inmy pre nt process which isthe subject of scribedjabove byintroducingapredetermined volumeofiiue gas into the secondary draft lthe injectors. 1,5. 1 As shown, these areactu! ated by air under pressure taken from the main 16. Theair discharging through the nozzl`17gassisted by the natural draft of vvsaid combustible gas,` theproportion of mixture the bench' exerted 'uponl the recuperator, as

well as vupon the producer 1, induces a flow of air and combustion gases into 'and through the injectors` 15 and into the recuperator flues 14. The air enters the injectors-through the dampered air inlets 18,

while the combustion gases enter through the passages 19. The flow of the combustion gasses through 19 is controlled by the dampers 20. By manipulating the dampers to 18 and the dampers 20 it is obvious'that for' any setting of the air valves 21 the relative proportion of induced air and combustion gases may be varied at will. v

The commingled air and lproducts of com bustion ascend through the vertical iiues 14,

sweeping around the horizontal fines 13,

which carry the combustion gases, andv passv through the group of passages 22. From.

passages 22 the mixture ofl air and combustion gases passes throughl the nostrils 8 into the retort oven as already described.

The effect ofthe presence of the combustion gases in the secondary draft current is to dilutethe air so that the velocity of the combustion taking place `between the gas yfrom the nostrils 6 and the air of the secondary'draft entering through nostrils 8 is reduced. Instead of burning with a short flame, the producer -gas burns with a long diluted.v iame of reduced intensity, that sweeps .through the chamber 7 enveloping the retorts therein.- If desired, the proportion of products of combustion in the secondary draft currentm'aybemade sufficiently great to so prolong the combustion of the gas that the flame will extend up to and, 1 .Y

indeed, into the oif-takevflues 10. l

By this improvement I am able to produce a long iiame of burning producer gas which bathes the retorts With a flame of substantially uniform temperature. Itis thus possi- As a result, the charges in all ofthe retorts may be carbonized to a uniform extent and bl-e and practicable to secure a substantially; uniform temperature in all of the retorts.

inthe same intervalof time. This insuresY productsv of combustion discharging v'from said furnace chamber, conducting the solsaid mixture-by 'the 'sensible heat of the .2

heated mixture of air and products of 'com-" Y bustion-'into said furnace chamber to burn products of 'combustion 1n said leo being such as will cause the said combusti- New York and State of New York this 13th Ele gashto bulrl'ln with a pllflolei (lllitjerdy day of May A. D. 1911. Y

ame t at W' su stanta y Sai nace chamber, whereby the contents vof said HENRY L DOmRTY' 5 chamber is subjected throughout tothe di- Witnesses:

rect action of the heating ame. FRANK L. BLACKBURN,

Signed at New York city in the county 'of S. B. SmnsoN. 

